Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Chris Port Blog #97. A Man Should Always Be of Use

“The danger time with depression isn’t the bad days. A bad day is just ‘flu spiked with rohypnol. You couldn’t even lift your head, let alone kill yourself. But on a good day, everything seems strangely normal. Even dying. That would be as easy as walking into the next room... God, how I dread those good days...” ~ Marty Gull

Less upbeat than Fukuyama. Less funny than Brecht. I’ve twisted in a few political lemon drops to sour the sentiment...

[The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, 1928]

PEACHUMto the audience: Something new is needed. My business is too hard, for my business is arousing human sympathy. There are a few things that stir men’s souls, just a few, but the trouble is that after repeated use they lose their effect. Because man has the abominable gift of being able to deaden his feelings at will, so to speak. Suppose, for instance, a man sees another man standing on the corner with a stump for an arm; the first time he may be shocked enough to give him tenpence, but the second time it will only be fivepence, and if he sees him a third time he’ll hand him over to the police without batting an eyelash. It’s the same with the spiritual approach. A large sign saying ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ is lowered from the grid. What good are the most beautiful, the most poignant sayings, painted on the most enticing little signs, when they get expended so quickly? The Bible has four or five sayings that stir the heart; once a man has expended them, there’s nothing for it but starvation. Take this one, for instance – ‘Give and it shall be given unto you’ – how threadbare it is after hanging here a mere three weeks. Yes, you have to keep on offering something new. So it’s back to the good old Bible again, but how long can it go on providing?

* * * * * * * * * *

The Post-Postmodern World

O scared new world that has such people in it!

O scared new world that has such people in it! ...

David Hasselhoff sings atop a rotten wall. It collapses in awe. Geriatric politburos topple out of their wheelchairs in shock. Capitalism declares victory. F**k me if ol’ Fukuyama doesn’t go and declare an end to history (clearly a few songs short of a Bob Dylan album...)

Then lo! Russia goes mafioso. Banks bet our shirts - and lose. Commies buy up every budget deficit in sight. Who needs tanks when you already own the shares? The West wins every battle it fights - and loses every war.

Oh what can stop our Great Come Back? I look around this great nation of ours and see... Oh... Starvation or revolution it is then... I’ll try the starvation route first. I’ll let you know where that gets me...

It’s 2022. Over-population, poverty, pollution, starvation. Then the Soylent Corporation markets a miracle new food stuff made out of nutritious “high-energy plankton”. Or is it? A police detective, Thorn (Charlton Heston) investigates the murder of the company president, and becomes marked for death by government agents. What is the truth behind ‘Soylent Green’? Grim. Grim as hell. Charlton Heston grim. Charlton Heston in full Planet of the Apes grim anti-hero gritted teeth grimace mode. But not nearly as grim as schools in 2011...

Sol, Thorn's friend and colleague, (Edward G. Robinson) finds out ‘the truth’ about Soylent Green. He no longer wishes to live in such a world and decides to ‘go home’. He goes to one of the government’s euthanasia clinics to be humanely put out of his misery - a polite, supermarket musak extermination centre for the hopeless. His friend Thorn (Charlton Heston) runs to find him, arriving too late, but sees the world that Sol is ‘going home’ to - Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony - nature and creatures that Thorn has never seen. “How could I have imagined...?” He gets the chance to say goodbye to his friend. Heston’s tears were real. He was one of the few people who knew that Robinson was in the terminal stages of cancer. Chilling, but beautiful. It’s a world we haven’t lost yet. Although we’re close. Dangerously close...

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About Me

I am a fully qualified teacher of Drama, Media and Film Studies with ten years’ work experience in secondary and further education. I graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama (one of the most respected Drama conservatoires in the world) with a first class Honours degree in Drama and Education and a PGCE.
I was a writer-in-residence and workshop leader for a Southend-based youth theatre for ten years, during which time I developed my creative writing skills to include playscripts, poetry and songs. With my deep interest in Film, I have now expanded these skills to include screenplays.
I now wish to take a sabbatical from teaching to focus on a proposal for a PhD thesis. This will involve developing new collaborative methodologies for intertextual musical theatre in the context of a resynthesis of art, philosophy and science.
My specific areas of interest and expertise are as follows: Academic, Acting, Analysis, Assessment, Auditions, Collaboration, Creative Thinking, Directing, Drama, Education, English, Film, History, Lecturing, Literature, Media, Poetry, Philosophy, Playscripts, Screenplays, Songs, Teaching, Television, Theatre, Tutoring, Workshops, Writing.

I’m writing a first draft for a musical. It's called Marty Gull (Marty[r] Gull[ible]). It's a surreal, satirical, tragicomic piece of musical political theatre: a cautionary tale of school politics, backstabbing egos and the state of the nation.

I’ve written the first draft libretto using a medley of melodies in my head from well-known musicals.

I would like to extend an open invitation to all budding musicians and composers to submit their own musical interpretations. I would also welcome interest from actors (age 20-25) who can sing and dance.

The plan is to develop a new collaborative form of musical theatre. Once we get a good working team of lyricists, composers, musicians, actors and designers together we can decide on the final evolution of the piece and arrange copyright accordingly. I would like to submit or even take the piece to Central as a work-in-progress.

Ultimately, I would be interested in using all of this as a springboard for a thesis on new art forms and musical theatre. But, most of all, I would love to have the opportunity of working with kind, creative and talented people.

If you like the sound of any of this, please post a comment at http://martygull.blogspot.com/or get in touch with me through one of the following methods: